SAN JOSE, Calif.–April 28, 2009–SEMI today announced that it has inked a partnership agreement with Convergent Semiconductors to bring the New Memory Technologies Conference to SEMICON West 2009. The program, entitled “Changing the Target Market—Changing the Value Propositions,” will be held concurrently with the first day SEMICON West on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 from 9:00am–5:00pm PST at the San Francisco Marriott. Dr. Tsugio Makimoto, former corporate advisor to Sony Corporation and author of “Digital Nomad” will deliver the opening keynote.

The program provides unique perspectives regarding the convergence of semiconductor manufacturing, application system design, IC design, new materials, and the equipment infrastructure, and it is primarily targeted at end-system designers, equipment manufacturers, investors and senior-level managers from related semiconductor companies.

“Current solid state memory technologies are already enabling a wide range of music and video handheld devices,” said Bob Merritt, principal at Convergent Semiconductors. “Beyond today’s flash and DRAM-based devices, a whole new set of devices are on the horizon that dramatically advance performance well beyond those traditional memories and other components such as today’s solid state drives.”

“The industry has experienced a major shift from PCs to vastly more powerful handheld devices, which incorporate most if not all of the functions previously only available on PCs,” said Tom Morrow, vice president of Global Expositions and Marketing at SEMI. “The New Memory Technologies Conference bridges the gap between traditional memory companies, and industry stalwarts such as HP, Intel and IBM, bringing them together to showcase innovative new applications that support new technologies such as MRAM.”

Examining the tradeoffs between new performance attributes and new manufacturing cost strategies that determine which new memory technologies will achieve high volume production, the conference will be divided into five distinct sessions focusing on different areas of the supply chain–from the consumer on down. Conference sessions include:

Moving Computing from the Desktop to the Coffee Shop

Moving Memory Completely Out of the Box

New Cells/New Possibilities

Bringing New Technologies into Production

Closing Panel: Who can afford to develop new memories–who can afford to ignore them?

A call for papers is currently open for companies interested in presenting at the conference, and more information may be found at www.convergentsemiconductors.com.

About Convergent Semiconductors

Convergent Semiconductors is the premier market intelligence resource focused on the new dynamics of memory and related technologies/applications. Understanding memory technology is key to comprehending what is possible for current and future end-product applications. Convergent Semiconductors merges memory and semiconductor industry market and technology data in a way that illuminates the unique opportunities for companies in that marketplace.

Sherry Garber and Bob Merritt each have 20+ years of industry experience and are knowledgeable executives with a proven track record of successfully analyzing and forecasting in order to effectively advise clients about the direction and impact of change on their business. Convergent Semiconductors understands the need for timely integration into the existing manufacturing infrastructure, which will be a key element towards building broad acceptance of any new technology. Convergent factors in new performance attributes and manufacturing cost strategies that will dictate which technologies will actually attain high volume production.

About SEMI

SEMI is the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display and photovoltaic industries. SEMI member companies are the engine of the future, enabling smarter, faster and more economical products that improve our lives. Since 1970, SEMI has been committed to helping members grow more profitably, create new markets and meet common industry challenges. SEMI maintains offices in Austin, Bangalore, Beijing, Brussels, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.semi.org.